BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?

Subject: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:19 AM

The green verges of the country roads around Cambs/E.Anglia used to be full of rabbits at any time of year. Driving around this morning, it occurred to me that it seems to be years since I last saw any.

Anyone know what has happened to them? Is it just round here or further afield?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:26 AM

Plenty here in N Yorks. Oddest place is a whole colony of them on a roundabout just outside Skipton!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:31 AM

Er What's up Doc?

Several possible reason Michael. Firstly RVHD Rabbit Viral Haemorrhagic Disease could have cut the population, secondly myxomatosis a dreadful disease and thirdly guns. Put these together with the time of year and the likelihood of seeing a rabbit will drop significantly.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:47 AM

They're all in my bloody garden. They are a menace. I'll cheerfully take any or all Raggytash's remedies. Or maybe pray for a hard winter. They are aliens in Britain and they haven't got enough enemies. They've even given up running away when we walk close to them.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:29 AM

There used to be an idiotic American commercial in which a fellow walks out into the sunny morning garden eating his bowl of some sort of Kellogs or General Mills cereal and smiles benignly at the bunny hopping around amongst the lettuce in his garden. In reality, a real gardener would go apeshit about then. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:34 AM

There is a nice bit one of Gervase Phinn's books where he introduces "Peter Rabbit" to his class of rural Yorkshire kids and finds they all sympathize with Mr McGregor.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:36 AM

Steve, have you seen myxomatosis? I wouldn't wish it on any creature. A Shotgun or rifle is quick as least. I used to go rabbiting with my cousins Jack Russell in the mid 60's when there was an outbreak of myxomatosis, a terrible thing to see. The only humane thing to do was to despatch the poor little buggers quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:42 AM

Yes Raggy --, but re time of year, I pointed out that it was months if not years since I've seen any. I well remember the big myxamotosis outbreak of the 1950s. Mouldering rabbit corpses lay everywhere. No corpses this time tho; so I don't find your suggestion of decimatory epidemics will quite meet the situation of this odd leporine vacuum. Especially as it seems to be a local rather than a widespread phenomenon.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 09:18 AM

I hadn't noticed but thinking about it there have been less around this year. The spread of large birds of prey is probably also a factor. A red kite wouldn't take one but would probably frighten them back underground and buzzards are now common over large areas where they weren't normally seen a few years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 09:58 AM

Most buzzards around here spend most of their time eating worms. Useless buggers they are. Great to see though. Most rabbits are resistant to myxomatosis. I see rabbits by the score every day around here but I haven't seen a single one with myxomatosis for years. I do find it extremely hard to sympathise with the little bastards. I'm with those Yorkshire kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: JennieG
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 10:31 AM

The little bastards emigrated to Australia in the mid-1850s.

That's where the bunnies are.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Git Parker
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 10:48 AM

The main factor in keeping rabbit numbers low in many areas is the

spread of the Polecat.

You know they have colonized when dead 'brown' ferrets appear as

roadkill.

They prevent the major warrens re-establishing after disease as they

can kill the survivors in the buries - stoats are not large enough to

do this.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:03 AM

There's one keeps getting into the veg garden despite the chicken wire. I think evolution is creating higher jumping rabbits.

I did see the weasel this morning perhaps he will scare them off.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:24 AM

I have noticed a lot more rabbit recipes among the trendy television foodies - could there be a connection?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Janie
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:34 AM

I think rabbits tend to go through population cycles in any particular locale. In the USA, in most places, cottontail rabbits tend to go through a cycle approximately every 10 years. I've read the same is true for snowshoe and jack rabbits.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:53 AM

You can't see them any more whilst driving?

Cataracts?

Just a thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Git Parker
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 12:09 PM

'Rabbits' in the USA are related to 'Hares' in Europe which are solitary species . European Rabbits live in colonies and can achieve high densities - they are a different species.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 12:15 PM

Hares are larger than most wild rabbits, their ears are shorter, and their gait is less bouncy. It's not hard to tell the difference. Like Europe, North America (a large place) has plenty of species of both critters.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Git Parker
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 12:34 PM

Europe has one rabbit species and one common hare species with four related but restricted species (plus one intro)
Europe does not have the cottontails and jackrabbits of the USA

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 01:46 PM

They are not rare in Kent. But they are delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 02:02 PM

Playboy clubs have about died out, so there are maybe just a few of those bunnies left in London, Macau, or India.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST, ^*^
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 02:35 PM

The Americans also have the rare but charismatic megafauna jackaloupe.

Another view.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:11 PM

In Alaska,also, Janie, rabbits/hares go through boom and bust cycles.

In Juneau, there is a still currently-localized plague of them. Domestic rabbits appear to have been released into the wild some years ago and now homeowners in that vicinity lose their gardens to them.

There ain't nuthin' dumber than humans; all across the country/world? we have lakes with non-native predatory fish in them, exotic snakes that don't belong in their new habitats, animals of all stripes that have adapted and thrive in their new climates and conditions. All released by people who no longer wanted their 'pets'.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:11 PM

No shortage at all of bunnies round here (Abergavenny, Wales). Despite our cat's best efforts to curb their proliferation ... he brings them in whole, in bits and sometimes still alive and kicking. We still see them out on the lane, in the fields and on the drive. We also have an abundance of shrews, voles, mice and moles, and a wide range of birds from wrens to ravens and the occasional red kite. The cat has been challenged by the ravens and the red kite but we've had a living magpie brought in.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 03:02 AM

If they all go, then Mick Hucknall from Simply Red won't have a love life any more.

He was holding back the ears but the bunny's too tight to mention.





Been waiting years for a chance to mangle that into a thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 06:59 AM

mike                                                                                                                                              Where have all the bunnies gone


there must be a song about that

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 02:34 PM

Where have all the Bunnies gone
long time passing
where have all the Bunnies gone
long time ago
where have all the Bunnies gone
into stew-pots everyone
when will they ever learn
when will they ever learn

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 02:41 PM

Yes, but where have all the stew-pots gone?

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 03:04 PM

My back yard is full of the critters. We only have cotton tails here. I watch them all the time

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 01:15 PM

There may still be many around Richard's bit of Kent, but the ones who kept the grass down on the verges of Gorse Hill (once Death Hill) near Brands Hatch haven't been around for a couple of years. Nor the ones along Scratchers Lane at the back of Brands Hatch. I've seen one or two, but seldom.

I have seen a mustelid of unknown sort, too small for a badger, too large for stoat or weasel crossing the road, possibly escaped ferret, as there are no reports of polecats in the vicinity.

The local butcher has only farmed rabbit, and I haven't seen any in the butchers at Polhill Garden centre, either. I fancy some stew. (Must fish out the one in the freezer - haven't liked to eat it while I couldn't find a replacement.)

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 01:20 PM

Where have all the California Chinook salmon gone.

Drought management emptied reservoirs of all the cool water to go to farmers reducing the young by 90% and threatening extinction.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 01:48 PM

Has anyone got a tip for getting rid of the horrible pissy smell you often get when cooking wild rabbit?
I used to boil them and then fry the pieces - now they are so uncommon
even as roadkill - and supermarket chicken is SO cheap.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 02:56 PM

Stewpot I think got a job as a BBC Radio 2 disc-jockey

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 06:00 PM

The stew pots have gone to antiques shops every one.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 06:30 PM

"Has anyone got a tip for getting rid of the horrible pissy smell you often get when cooking wild rabbit?"

Simple. Drink American beer when you eat the dish. The pissy taste and smell of the beer will easily overpower the rabbit smell.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 02:05 AM

Eat asparagus and overcome it with a source closer to home.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 05:31 AM

Penny:
Do you have mink in your area? Could be your mystery animal.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 03:26 PM

I don't think it was a mink, unless a fancy colour escapee. And I think it wasn't slinky enough. I did contact some mammal group, and they hadn't any reports of mink in the area - which doesn't have water courses.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 05:15 PM

Could have been a Polecat.   There are a few reports from The Weald.
Even the 'pure' Polecats (ie in Wales) have some ferret blood now

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 20 Nov 15 - 02:31 PM

In the Midwestern US we also have the cycles of more-or- fewer bunnies. Local bunnies are cottontails. Sighted only a few this year . Couple years back I joked about making hassenpfeffer for a crowd, with a dozen or more daily carousing in the morning dew outside my back door. Now we have deer instead, who do much more garden damage, and following them to relocation in the suburbs are coyotes, who no doubt have contributed to the dearth of bunnies.

How odd that the damn deer make me nostalgic for bunnies.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:27 AM

And now, once again, spring is sprung, the grass is riz ···

···& once again, to continue but adapt slightly Mr Ogden Nash's query,

I WONDER WHERE THE RABBITS IS!

Still not a sighting of a single one for years [literally] now, whereas they used to teem on all the verges hereabouts.

Anyone seen any? Is this a purely local [N Cambs Fenland] phenomenon; or have they gone awol elsewhere? nationwide?

✍✍✍-up if you have seen any lately...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:33 AM

Plenty in Rossendale. Counted eight looking out of the window the other day.
There may be fewer rabbits now though as I could also see two foxes basking in the sunshine two fields away.
I did catch one in the garden last week and gave him a free transportation to another field! I keep trying to rabbit proof the garden but they keep finding new ways to get in.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:38 AM

Oh Michael we've got hundreds here in Norfolk. At a local crematorium, they were nibbling away all the shrubs and flowers, so recently a chap was paid to sit there all night and shoot them.

We see dozens of tiny baby rabbits dicing with death on the grass verges, and sadly some squashed ones on the road. I bet the foxes are having a feast.

Speaking of foxes, do you suppose they've increased in numbers, and are gobbling up the rabbits in vast quantities?

We always look for an albino rabbit that lives in a huge warren near a main road. We saw it last week. Amazing that a fox hasn't picked it off by now, as it's very conspicuous.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:50 AM

Thanx 2U both for swift response..

But, then, where the hell have all ours gone to!?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Fossil
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 05:52 AM

Where have all the antique shops gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the antique shops gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the antique shops gone?

gone on eBay, every one!

When will they ever learn.... etc

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 06:04 AM

LoL


But who's going to sell bunni·rabbitz on e-Bay!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 07:16 AM

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Selling-live-rabbits-on-eBay/td-p/24983925

here in Australia rabbits are a major agricultural pest, but pet rabbits ere popular.

One of my friends was horrified to inherit a bunny from her mother's estate - cries of what am I going to do with a rabbit? But it looked at her with it's cute little bunny eyes & twitched it's little bunny nose, & now she is owned by several (unrelated) rabbits & helps rescue abandoned rabbits & creates small saleable items for a charity that re-homes abandoned rabbits!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 07:18 AM

Plagues of rabbits here. They've virtually wrecked my garden over the winter. Them and the bloody mole in my front lawn. And the bloody roe deer have eaten my purple sprouting. Squirrels eat my bird food and the bloody blue tits wreck my putty. Bastards.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 08:07 AM

Nature's a bitch, eh?

Plenty of rabbits down here in West Sussex. Time to get the gas pistol out methinks...

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 10:02 AM

Hundreds in East London! They're all up and down the Northern Outfall Sewer embankment. Plenty of other wildlife too, foxes, squirrels, rats, magpies, crows, cormorants, herons and any amount of tits and finches - even wild parrots!